Spilt Milk
by SkullyCat Marie
Summary: MWP&P in their 6th year! A little romance and a lot of fighting - Ch3: Lily hates James, who is depressed, Peter Loves Lily and Severus wonders, Sirius doesn't understand it, and Remus is alone... ? Enjoy! R&R please! ^_^
1. All night

Spilt Milk

Chapter one: All night

Remus peered over James's shoulder and read the first paragraph of his friend's essay.

"Whadda yah think?" James asked, watching the light-haired boy's pale eyes scan the paper. 

"It's all right… I'm not sure about the date though. You should check it out, but I'm pretty sure the giant wars _ended_ then – not began then." Remus replied turning back to his own bit of parchment. The two sixth year boys were sitting in the Gryffindor common room by the fire and awaiting the arrival of Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. It was late and all of the other students had gone to bed. However, James, Sirius and Peter had all left their essays to the last minute and Remus had sportingly agreed to help them at it – even if it did take all night. 

The portrait door swung open and there was the sound of people whispering and moving forward. Suddenly, out of thin air, Sirius and Peter appeared. Peter was short and plump with a small, boyish sort of face. He was holding an armful of goodies snatched from the kitchens. Sirius on the other hand was tall, dark and handsome. He dressed like a wizard rock star and moved with a playful swagger. He was holding James's invisibility cloak in one hand and a tray of butter beers in the other.

"Good morning gents!" Sirius beamed at them, it was actually early morning now. James smirked at his best friend and leaned back in his chair, looking relieved at the interruption and delicious snacks. 

"What took you so long?" Remus asked, casually selecting a cauldron cake from the treats Peter had dumped unceremoniously on the tabletop. The plump boy sighed and dropped into the chair next to Remus, tearing open a chocolate frog as he spoke, 

"Filch was wandering about being a pain. We had to wait for him to leave the corridor- " Sirius interrupted him,

"- and he was there for ages! Kept muttering to himself and that bloody cat! Going on and on about being tipped off 'students out of bed coming to the kitchens!' he finally decided to go elsewhere. I think that was peeves' doing."

"Maybe he just got tired." James said halfheartedly. 

"Sirius also had a quick – chat – with that Ravenclaw girl – the one with the long blonde like hair? _That_ made us later too…" Peter said rolling his eyes.

"The prefect?" said James again, he still seemed only half there as most of his attentions were focused on the refreshments. 

"Yeah. Her." Sirius said looking smug. 

Remus glanced across the table at his friend. Sirius and James were both handsome, talented and charming fellows. The girls all swooned over them and the two best friends used to make a game of it. Flirting with all the girls and dating more than one of them at a time, each trying to out do the other and neither getting too involved. But since the end of their fifth year James just hadn't been as into as Sirius. Remus thought it was because of Lily Evans, a pretty Gryffindor girl in the same year as them. Sirius had dated her for a short time, but then for some reason they broke up. Most likely James had his hand in that – and Sirius didn't seem to mind. 

Remus, thinking of all of Sirius and James's previous 'relationships', make a small sound something like a laugh and a 'tsk'. 

"What?" the two of them said automatically. 

"Nothing." Remus muttered, still smirking at his parchment. 

"Did you like that Ravenclaw girl?" Peter asked. Remus's smirk spread into a grin, as much as he might love Peter – the kid was often clueless. 

"I think Moony has a problem with my girlfriend." Sirius stated loudly, giving Remus an imperiously daring look with one eyebrow raised and the corners of his lips turned up. Remus put down his quill.

"She's your girlfriend now is she?" he said with mock surprise, "Sorry, it's just so hard to keep up with you and all – what with a new girlfriend every day…" 

"Ah! I am offended!" Sirius clutched at his chest and tried to look indignant, which might have worked if he hadn't been grinning so very much. "Are you suggesting, _good sir_, that I might be a womanizing bastard who breaks the hearts and virginity of all that is female!" 

James and Peter dissolved into laughter at this, but Remus sat up very proper like and replied, "I think you're ego is a bit too big – breaking the hearts of everything female – tsk! Hardly, I say!" The truth was that Sirius had a reputation for being casual, so most girls that got involved with him didn't expect the stay with him. 

"Oh Moony that's cruel!" Sirius clutched at his chest some more and writhed around in his seat before finally being overcome by laughter. 

It was sometime much later when Sirius cracked open an eye to see actual sunlight the table before him. Sure it was watery and pale, hardly anything more than predawn light – but it was there. Peter was snoring lightly and sprawled out across his essay. James had curled up in his comfy chair, glasses slipping down his nose. Remus on the other hand was up and awake and scribbling in a journal. 

"Whatcha doin'?" Sirius asked blinking away sleep and sitting up a little more. Remus jumped slightly at the sound of someone else's voice. 

"Oh… nothing… Just writing." he closed the book and put it away out of sight. "Have a good sleep?" 

"Oh yes. _Simply marvelous_! I mean _really_, you simply _must_ try sleeping on these wooden tables – terribly comfortable I do say!" Remus smiled half-heartedly, his eyes however were distracted and thoughtful. 

"Why do you always make everything a joke, Padfoot?" he asked seriously. 

"Wha – me? Make things into jokes? Pah! It's unheard of!" Sirius replied automatically. He caught a small look of disappointment on Remus's face before the other boy could hide it with a polite smile. "Sorry, couldn't help it I suppose…"

"Yeah. You've been doing it for a long time. Ever since the end of our first year really…" Remus mused, "I figured it was just your way of… not facing something. I mean, everything's easier to face if you can laugh about it."

"So what's the problem?" Sirius asked with an attempted grin.

"Well it's also easier to hide from…"

Remus and Sirius stared at each other for long moments, both reaching a sort of understanding of the other. Finally Remus stood up with a sigh, "we better wake up the others before everyone else starts coming down into the common room – we have a potions test today." 

Sirius nodded mutely, wondering just how much Remus knew.

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AN: O.o;; maybe it's to be continued? I'm tired. I didn't plan this. It happened… *stares at it curiously* yeahh well sure… enjoy it then? No idea where the title of this story came from… but I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with anything.

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Disclaimer: don't own anything. 


	2. A good thrashing

Spilt Milk

Chapter two: A good thrashing

"Psst! Lily!" Lily Evans looked up from her charms assignment, one of the girls from her dorm room was leaning over and gesturing to her. Lily leaned forward with a quick glance at the turned back of professor Flitwick.

"What is it, Emily?" 

"Don't look now – but someone's making eyes at you!" her friend said with a tiny giggle as she moved back and pretended to be working. Lily's bright green eyes flickered over to James. He was busy working. It was almost automatic, the fact that her gaze was draw to him – even if he was an arrogant prat he did flirt with her the most and she was used to his advances. In fact she was a little bit hurt that it _wasn'_t him who was staring. It was the Pettigrew boy.

Peter looked away instantly, it was a guilty movement but he had never really been good at this sort of thing. Lily was beautiful though, long rich, auburn hair with a slight curl to it and such startling emerald eyes. Peter had liked Lily for a long time, even longer than James had. But he had never had a girlfriend, and he was far to shy to actually approach her or anything.

"Wormtail – hey!" Sirius hissed, interrupting Peter's thoughts. "Do you have a piece of parchment I can borrow?" 

Peter handed it to him wordlessly and watched as Sirius created some sort of bird out of the folded paper. He then proceeded to tap it with his wand and send it flying over to James. Everyone knew that Sirius has runaway from home that summer, he was kind of living with the Potters and he didn't have that much money so he didn't have all the supplies he needed. He was far too proud to ask for help – he just borrowed everything he needed. 

"Hello there Lily flower! Having a good day?" Sirius asked, draping one arm around Lily's shoulders and grinning idiotically – which was actually quite charming. James came up on her other side followed closely by Peter and Remus. 

"I was…" Lily replied teasingly as she peeled Sirius's arm off her.

"So let's go out on Friday? Sneak into Hodsmeade for a romantic mug of butter beer…" James said placing his arm around her shoulders in Sirius's place. Lily ducked under it and shook her head,

"I don't think I could fit in a room with you and your big head, James." And she turned into the library.

"Face it mate, she's never going to go out with you." Sirius said as the passed a group of giggling fifth years. James chose not to reply to this light hearted comment, it was closer to the truth than he liked to admit. 

"Is she going out with anyone?" Peter asked casually. 

"No, I don't think so…" James answered.

"Actually, she's just started dating that Spinnet boy in Ravenclaw, the seventh year." Remus murmured, his nose stuck in a book about space travel. James and Peter stopped dead in their tracks and it took a moment for Remus to notice. "What? Emily Brown told me in muggle studies this morning." 

"Spinnet, eh?" James said, starting up again and pretending like he didn't care. "What's he like then? Another bookie prefect type? Or just a plain smart kid?"

Peter finally caught up to them, "Is he good looking?"

"He's really smart, hardly has to study at all – and he's a real gentlemen from what I hear. Maybe a bit too on the proud side, but he'd never act that way in front of Lily or any girl for that matter." Remus continued, the majority of his attention back in the book. 

"Ugh…" James said, lacing his fingers together behind his head. 

"And I thought I was girl crazy!" Sirius muttered, "At least I never get involved with their boyfriends too! _Expelliarmus!" _

Nearby, Severus Snape, a greasy haired sixth year Slytherin lost his wand as it soared into the air and towards Sirius, who caught it. The other boy scowled, his upper lip curling unpleasantly. 

"Trying to curse us unawares, eh you ugly git?" Sirius snapped, well aware of the fact that other students in the halls were slowing and watching the confrontation. 

"Give me back my wand Black!" Snape hissed. 

"Hah, why should I?" Sirius toyed with the wand, a lazy expression on his face – only his eyes were alert and hateful. "Maybe we should just drop it off this balcony… let you run down to the dungeons and get it."

Remus and Peter were quite still as they watched, James on the other hand stepped up beside his best friend. Snape was practically snarling now.

"The ickle grease monkey has no wand… well, doesn't that suck?" James said with a laugh. Snape made a very rude comment about what James could suck and Sirius lunged forward, tossing his and Snape's wands back to Remus, he used his body weight to slam the Slytherin in to the stone wall. 

"I'm going to thrash you like a dog!" Sirius said grinning menacingly, the irony was not lost on him – though perhaps on Snape – the Gryffindor punched him in the gut until he doubled over. James shoved him down onto the stone floor. 

"_JAMES POTTER_!" a shrill voice called out. Everyone turned, the crowd had disappeared at the first signs of a serious fight. Lily Evans, clutching her books to her chest, was running towards them. "Oh, god…" She murmured, dropping her things and falling to Snape's side. Remus and Peter stayed back, staring rather uncertainly at Lily. James looked thoroughly embarrassed and a little worried – not about Snape of course, but about his chances with the Evans girl. Sirius on the other hand, didn't look in the least guilty, in fact he looked a touch annoyed. 

"I cannot believe you!" Lily shouted, as Snape sat up and swatted her hand away, her green eyes livid. The Gryffindor prefect jumped to her feet and jabbed her finger in James's chest, making him take a few stumbling steps backwards. "You are an awful person and you haven't a shred of decency in you! I can't believe I _ever_ thought I might like you! You're a just an arrogant, stuck up, selfish _bully_! I want nothing more to do with you!" 

James had become very pale, and his dark eyes were wide behind his glasses. He seemed to be at a complete loss for words. Lily, it seemed, didn't expect or want a response. She turned to give the other boys an equally fierce look before literally dragging Severus off and snatching his wand from Remus. The four Gryffindor boys stood dumbstruck in silence. Finally Sirius spoke,

"I reckon we shouldn't have let her catch us…" His eyes were on James. No one said anything, James was staring hard at the floor. After a while he just sort of walked off. Sirius made to go after him but Remus caught him by the sleeve and shook his head. Sure, James Potter was a joker and a laugh, but he also seemed pretty serious about Lily. 

"I'm going to go return these…" Peter said softly, he was holding all of Lily's discarded books. He took turned and left Sirius and Remus standing alone in the deserted hallway. After a while Sirius said, 

"Come on, let's go down to the hall and eat. Lunch won't be over for another twenty minutes…" 

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AN: Oooh look! It's continued! I love writing this… it's so fun! Ah, but it's always fun to write about these guys… Anyway, we'll see what happens now won't we? I guess I better figure that out as I'm writing this… O.o;;

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Disclaimer: don't own anything.


	3. Gaining trust

Spilt Milk

Chapter Three: Gaining trust

Severus Snape was sitting at the back of the library trying to finish the charms homework. He was finding it rather hard to do considering the fact that his stomach was one massive ache – and his shoulder hurt from being shoved into the wall. It was only after they had gone down three flights of stairs that Severus had managed to get rid of the muggle girl, Lily. She had become very irritated by the fact that he was so rudely shoving her off that she called him ungrateful and a bunch of names. He decided not to make anything of it and chalked it up to PMS. 

"Damnit!" He said softly, leaning back in his chair and loosening his grip on his quill. "How am I supposed to concentrate with this goddamn bruise…" he muttered to himself, "Maybe I should have let Evans take me to the hospital wing…"

"Severus?" He turned around to see the pretty redhead standing beside the bookshelves. "Look, I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I shouldn't have gone all mad at you, I was still venting about Potter and his friends… even if you were a tad ungrateful."

Severus tried a scowl, but it didn't seem to work right because she kept staring at him meaningfully – like she expected something from him. What? An apology?

"Right. Whatever Evans…" he stared back at paper determinedly, hoping that if he ignored her she'd just go away. Instead she sat down next to him, perfectly cheery again. 

"Do you need any help? Charms is my best class…" She said with a smile. 

"No. I don't need help. I'm perfectly fine, thanks." Severus, unnerved by her warm attitude and nearness, shifted away and gave her a suspicious glare through his long, greasy hair. Lily made an exasperated sound, and stood up,

"Fine. I don't understand why it's such a big deal to accept help and friendship from a _mudblood_!" she snapped, several people turned and looked at her stunned. But Lily paid no attention and instead turned on her heel and left Severus to his thoughts and homework.

Peter Pettigrew had arrived in time to see the whole thing. He was standing by the door holding the Gryffindor prefect's books and staring openly at Evans and Snape. Lily brushed past him and into the hall without even seeing him. 

"L-Lily!" He called after her, half afraid she'd turn on him like she had James and Snape. "Y-you forgot your books!" She stopped mid-stride and twirled around. 

"Oh." 

"Here you are then…" Peter said shuffling over to her, he was actually a couple inches shorter than her, he tipped the books into her arms. "Sorry, about earlier… um, I just… they're so much bigger than I am, a-and… I, uh…"

"It's all right Peter." She said calmly, "It makes sense that they bully you around too. I'm sure James loves having his own personal friend-admirer – no offense of course. I guess you have to hang around him if you're friends with Remus too… I just thought… well it doesn't matter."

"Sure it does!" Peter said nodding, he was watching her with rapt attention as they walked down the hall towards the common room he supposed. "Your thoughts and feeling are really very important – well, um, t-to me an-and uh, James is – is a… he doesn't see… these things."

Lily looked at him, really looked at him. Sure he wasn't exactly physically attractive and she had never really considered his mind or personality to be attractive – but then again she'd never really talked to Peter before. True she was dating someone else, and even if she hadn't been she doubted that Peter would ever interest her in that way. But he was still sweet. 

"Does James do that a lot? Pick on people and bully them?"

"Uh… yeah…" 

"I should have known…" 

Peter swallowed, wondering what exactly he was doing. He really liked Lily, and a lot of people knew it. James seemed and Lily seemed to be the only people that _didn't_ pick up on it. And here he was, walking and talking with her – the girl of his dreams. He had the chance to show Lily what a caring person he was – and what a bad choice James was? He knew that Sirius and Remus would be mad at him for this – but James just wasn't right for Lily anyway! Besides, James could have any girl he wanted – and Peter only wanted one. 

"He's just, um, doesn't seem to care what other people think or feel. That's just the way he is… It's not really his fault." Peter added the last bit as a sort of mental apology. They were standing outside the portrait of the fat lady. 

"Yeah, well I'm done with him." Lily said resolutely, "Golden Glitter." 

The picture swung away and the two Gryffindors entered the tower, Lily smiled at Peter as way of goodbye and headed up to her dorm. Peter went up the stairs on the other side, feeling both overjoyed and guilty. 

Sirius was the first to finish the potions test. He sat up and looked around, toying with his anti-cheat quill as he watched the back of James's head. James had been the last one to arrive at the dungeons, he was still scratching away at the test paper, focusing all his attention on it. 

"Done Mr. Black?" The professor asked quietly, coming to collect the paper and quill. "You may leave now." Sirius lingered for a moment, fidgeting with his shoelaces and pretending to have lost a something from his pockets, at last he gave up and left. He didn't go far, just up the stairs to the entrance hall where he took a seat on the great marble stairs. The halls were unusually empty because everyone was still in class. Sirius wanted to talk to James, he wasn't sure what there was he could do, but he knew that he had to try something. 

"Sirius?" a soft female voice questioned. Sirius tilted his head and saw Emily Brown, Lily's friend. She came over and took a seat beside him on the steps. 

"Finished your test already?" Sirius asked idly, his mind still distracted – James usually finished second, how come he was taking so long? And why was Ms. Brown finished before him?

"Yeah, it was pretty easy. I've been studying potions in my spare time. I think I might do something potions-related in the future. I mean it's one of my favorite subjects." There was a pause, when she realized that Sirius wasn't paying attention. "Thinking about your girlfriend?"

"Huh, what? No… I mean, I don't have a girlfriend." Sirius gave Emily a mildly annoyed look but she just stared back at him smiling. It became apparent to him that she had only made that last comment to get his attention. Now that she had it, Sirius frowned at her. Like Lily, Emily was an intelligent, pretty girl with a few close friends and a million not-so-close ones. She was a little more girlish than Lily thought, writing notes and giggling about boys in the common room. Lily never seemed to have time for that sort of thing. Sirius's bored gaze flickered across her body and he let himself think perverse thoughts of her. To his surprise, when he met her blue eyes he saw desire there – not that he didn't get that look from a lot of people, but he never really expected it from her. His eyelids drooped slightly, and he gave her a smoldering look through long black lashes, a tiny smile playing across his lips. 

Remus sighed and put down his quill. He looked around, the class was mostly still writing – Sirius of course was gone, as were a few others, but to his surprise James was still bent over and scribbling madly. He signaled the professor and handed over his finished work, picked up his bag and left. Where was Sirius anyway? The common room most likely, it was a bit windy outside and he didn't really like to be alone. Staring at the floor, Remus turned up the marble staircase but seeing movement out of the corner of his eye he looked up. Sirius and Emily were together at the corner where wall met stairs, Emily had her face buried against Sirius's neck and he had his head tilted back and his hand up under her shirt. 

Remus couldn't help it, he stared. It was almost as though he'd walked through a ghost and had been frozen into place. He could hear the soft guttural noises they made, the rustle of clothing against each other and their quiet panting. Quite suddenly Sirius's dark, chocolate eyes snapped open and locked onto Remus's own pale honeyed eyes. For a moment Remus could think of nothing except the fact that they were probably going to have sex, then he tore his gaze away and ran up the rest of the stairs to the seventh floor and the common room. 

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AN: Ja! Thank you everyone who reviewed! I hope I can keep this one going, I think it might get more serious and more romantic/sexual… if you have any ideas or suggests feel free to tell me! *grins* Cheers everyone!

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Disclaimer: don't own anything.


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